A Long, Strange Trip To El Porto - The Story Of Woodrow "Pack" Landfair

 

Woodrow “Pack” Landfair is an American road storyteller, author, musician, entrepreneur, and owner of El Porto Surf Shop. After an unplanned 48-state motorcycle journey changed the course of his life, it ultimately led him to El Porto, California—where he now lives, writes, surfs, and is working to surf every coastal nation on Earth while building one of Southern California’s most distinctive independent surf shops.

Born Stanley Wood Landfair II in Richmond, Virginia, Pack is a graduate of the University of Texas where he studied creative writing under poet and novelist Zulfikar Ghose while on full academic scholarship from the United States Navy ROTC.

A champion youth wrestler in Virginia and an original member of the storied Bandits Wrestling program, Pack was recruited by the Naval Academy but lost his wrestling career and congressional appointment after recurrent shoulder dislocations required consecutive surgeries during his junior and senior years of high school.

Winding up at Texas, and dared by fellow Midshipmen to attend a 2002 try-out, Pack became an unlikely member of the 2005 College World Series Champion baseball team. From 2003-2005 he was teammates with 13 soon-to-be major leaguers - under head coach Augie Garrido, the winningest baseball coach in NCAA history.

In addition to a national championship ring - and a Bachelors Degree in English Literature - Pack earned Midshipman of the Month, Student-Athlete of the Month, Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll, three varsity letters, three Big XII Championship rings, served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, made three trips to the College World Series in Omaha, and was twice voted Teammate Of The Year by his teammates.

In 2006, after a back injury ended his future in the Navy, Pack sold his national championship ring and nearly all of his possessions to buy a used motorcycle and begin an indefinite 48 state odyssey, working manual labor gigs across the country. 

In homage to his hero, Woody Guthrie, he began performing stories from the road at open mics across the country under the name "Woodrow", legally changing it in 2009. Those adventures and years of searching became the subject of his first book, the semi-autobiographical novel Land Of The Free (Harbinger Book Group, 2014).

Prior to the novel's publication, Pack served one year writing articles under the name "Patrick Woodrow" - as Associate Editor for Prop 65 Clearinghouse, a legal journal in San Francisco. He spent one year as a Brand Ambassador for Zico Coconut Water, and two years on the production staff of New York City’s world renowned Shakespeare In The Park and The Public Theater.

Still editing and re-writing the first novel - Pack was hired as a producer, ghostwriter and stunt double for the global superstar Ronald McDonald. Trained at "Hamburger U", the original Oak Brook, Illinois McDonald's headquarters, Pack learned business directly from the restaurant corporation's handbooks, executives, franchisees and crew members - while writing speeches, jokes, songs, stage shows and magic tricks in support of Ronald's appearances around the globe. After seven joyful years working for one of the world's most recognized and beloved public figures, Pack resigned to found his own company focused on his personal passions, identity, and philosophy. 

The 2014 release of Land of the Free, took Pack on a coast-to-coast tour revisiting stops from his motorcycle trip nearly a decade earlier.

Coinciding with a nationwide wave of marijuana legalization, friends previously met on the road ran word-of-mouth storytelling events in states where marijuana had been recently legalized - but was still not available for sale. Autographed copies of Land of the Free frequently sold for a steep premium - with one ounce gifts. In some states, door-to-door delivery of Land of the Free was said to have continued for years. In ways never foreseen and far beyond his control, the book sold en masse. 

In 2017, taking a break while searching Central Texas for a coffee shop to buy as a small live music venue, Pack flew to Los Angeles to go surfing - winding up in El Porto for the first time.

Recognizing El Porto Surf Shop as having the potential to become a local and global community hub - and scratching his own lifelong itch to live at the beach and surf everyday - he purchased the business with a handshake deal on the spot. Over the next seven years, he would more than quadruple the business to take the entire property - including Player's Liquor, the attached convenience store. Influenced by the five years he spent living in Austin, Pack believes El Porto has all the necessary magic to become to Callifornia Surf Culture now what Luckenbach, Texas became to country music during the 1970s. 

Having rented surfboards visiting California since early boyhood - a result of his parents' cross-country divorce - the opportunity to surf and supply equipment to others everyday redefined the story of his life.

Pack's intention as a business owner is to remain artistically free and authentic - while being the best leader, student, and teacher he can to his employees, neighbors and visitors, in order to genuinely and enthusiastically provide valuable goods and service to individuals and the neighborhood - for the betterment of himself and all involved. His goals are to surf, write, travel, grow, connect and to keep spreading positive vibes, running soulful independent endeavors until the day he dies.

His most recent book, Road Journals: 48 States. One Ride, (Harbinger Book Group, May 2026) is the original 57 week journal of the 2006-2007 motorcycle trip - and Pack's most personal work to date.

The publication is a prequal to Surf Journals, Vol 1. which chronicles the first 19 countries of his ongoing quest to surf every coastal nation on earth - while building El Porto Surf Shop into a world renowned flagship location. Surf Journals is available in bookstores everywhere Spring 2027. See Woodrow Pack Landfair (Packman Surfs The World) live on tour - with guitar, harmonica, stories and songs - in a coastal town near you.